The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Rudbeckia plant, botanically known as Rudbeckia fulgida var. Sullivantii and referred to by the cultivar name Pot of Gold.
The new cultivar is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Boisbriand, Quebec, Canada. The objective of the breeding program was to create new compact Rudbeckia cultivars with uniform plant habit, large inflorescences and intense ray floret color.
The new cultivar originated from a self-pollination made by the Inventor of the Rudbeckia fulgida var. Sullivantii cultivar Goldstrum, not patented. The new Rudbeckia was selected by the Inventor as a flowering plant within the progeny of this cross in a controlled environment in Boisbriand, Quebec, Canada, in the 1990.
Plants of the new cultivar are different from plants of the parent, the cultivar Goldstrum, in the following characteristics:
1. Plants of the new Rudbeckia are more compact than plants of the cultivar Goldstrum.
2. Plants of the new Rudbeckia are more uniform in plant habit and height than plants of the cultivar Goldstrum.
3. Plants of the new Rudbeckia have larger inflorescences than plants of the cultivar Goldstrum.
4. Ray floret color of the new Rudbeckia is much more intense than ray floret color of the cultivar Goldstrum.
Asexual propagation of the new cultivar by crown divisions and by terminal cuttings at Boisbriand, Quebec, Canada, has shown that the unique features of this new Rudbeckia are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.